Warbirds and tales

Two strangers have put together the accounts of war veterans on a website to preserve aviation history.

It holds two people "" poles and countries apart "" together. A mutual love for aviation and war history binds New York-based Samir Chopra, a philosophy doctorate, and Hyderabad-based Jagan Pillarisetti, an IT professional, together "" even though they've never met.

Their work, called the Veterans Project, informal and un-aided, is part of a larger website, www. bharatrakshak. com/IAF, which was started by non-resident Indians to store information, history, and reports on the three Indian military service armsof the army, air force and navy.

Pillarisetti and Chopra, moonlighting as webmasters, have made the project part of the air force link, so that, along with other basic information on the Indian Air Force like history and conflicts, you can view numerous photographs of squadrons, planes, memorabilia and personal accounts narrated by war veterans.

For instance, you can read retired Wing Commander H K Patel's account of the Second World War, when he was posted in Burma (now Myanmar). He tells a delightful tale of a "chappie named Wankadia who cried his eyes out every time there was a raid".

Once, Patel recounts in his interview, Wankadia was working on an aircraft when the bombing started. Wankadia, says Patel, jumped into the nearest trench and started bawling.

An aircraft of the number 28 RAF (the IAF was then, in its pre-Independence avatar, the Royal Air Force ) Squadron got hit and the ammunition mechanic working there was badly hurt.

Wankadia, apparently, still crying, got out of the trench, ran up to the mechanic amidst falling bombs and hauled him out, dragged him to safety and resumed bawling. The incident was christened "Crying Wankadia's Gallantry".

Pillarisetti also recalls interviewing a Hyderabad-based fighter pilot who had shot down a Pakistani fighter in the last war and wanted to find out about the pilot and his fate. "The Internet had just taken off and our research not only brought up information on the Pakistani pilot, but also his photograph and background."

The website is filled with other such accounts of experiences and anecdotes on the air force between 1932-39, during World War II, the Congo operation, the Goa liberation, the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war and also more recent accounts of the Sri Lankan interlude and the Kargil War.

The Veterans Project started last year and is considered today within airforce circles as an authority on military aviation history.

Pillarisetti's penchant for aviation history and trivia started from his childhood, when he used to read war comics and books.

However, his obsession with the IAF started when he was 15 and read a review of the late Air Chief Marshal P C Lal's book, My Years with the IAF, which he subsequently read.

Later that year, he read about Squadron Leader A B Devayya, an officer killed over Pakistan in the 1965 war, whose bravery was recognised 23 years later in 1988.

"From that moment, I started collecting clippings, books, anything to do with the IAF," says the history and management graduate.

But while Pillarisetti has no direct link to the IAF, Samir Chopra comes from a family of air force officers.

His father, squadron leader P C Chopra, a decorated war hero, served in the IAF from 1956-76 and flew Toofanis, Vampires, Su-7s and Hunters; his uncle, Air Marshal Gandharva Sen, started his flying career with Spitfires and ended it with Marut HF-24s.

Samir's brother Ashutosh Chopra is currently a Wing Commander, commanding the 16 Squadron flying Jaguars.

Samir, however, is an assistant professor in the department of computer science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, and his current line of research concentrates on the philosophical foundations of artificial intelligence and the politics of technology.

By 1998, Pillarisetti had been collecting data on the IAF for 10 years and when the Internet crept into Hyderabad, he found the bharat-rakshak website as one that had information on the IAF. He got in touch with Rupak Chattopadhyay and offered to contribute articles to the website.

He also started his own website on the information he had collected on the 1965 war, and that's how Chopra got in touch with him. Chattopadhyay asked Pillarisetti to join him in running the IAF section under bharat-rakshak , so Pillarisetti moved all the information from his own website to this link.

Samir started leaving comments in the guestbook and later helped Pillarisetti procure material on the 1965 war as well.

"When I joined the IAF subsite it was an information house. Later, we started tapping sources and contacts in India and doing articles and stories," says Pillarisetti.

Chopra and Pillarisetti found a common interest in the 1965 war and decided to collaborate on a book, due out soon, and the idea of the Veterans Project came about then.

"Many IAF veterans were passing away before their rich store of experiences could be recorded . I particularly feel this because of the loss of my father, whose life remains a considerable mystery to me," says Chopra.

But getting this information together hasn't been easy. For one, they have no access to the IAF history cell and the website is not endorsed by the IAF.

"We rely entirely on personal contacts and individual serving officers have extended help within the scope of their responsibilities and government rules," says Pillarisetti.

The website is funded by Pillarisetti and Chopra, sale of air force-related discs brought out by the Air Force Wives Welfare Association, Google advertisements and sales of defence related books.

Says Chopra, "Apart from preserving history, we've been able to put old friends in touch with each other. One of these days, Jagan and I will meet as well."